Emergency pendant and devices that attach to a person's body for detecting, notifying medical and/or rescue services are known.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,279,060 of Liu describes a body attached device which monitors senior citizens by using accelerometers and sensors to detect sudden changes in gait direction and speed (i.e. a sudden fall while walking).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,210,240 B2 of Townsend et al discloses a sensing device attached to a living person to detect body limb and joint motions. U.S. Pat. No. 7,589,637 of Bischoff, et al. discloses a system for monitoring activity of an individual in possession of a body worn “home/away” pendant, where multiple other sensors are used to detect whether the individual is properly using the body worn “home/away” pendant.
The present invention preferably utilizes the Z-Wave protocol to create a local network of a wide variety of special purpose sensors since it has the reliability, low cost, and ease of use required by the task at hand. While others have used Wi-Fi or other IEEE 802.11—based wireless LAN solutions; those are optimized for high bandwidth data flow. The Z-Wave protocol is designed as a low-power wireless technology for transmission of small data packets.